City Council approves industrial campus to replace Ford City Mall in West Lawn

The Chicago City Council has approved Kurv Industrial’s plan to replace the closed Ford City Mall at 7601 S. Cicero Ave. in West Lawn with four industrial buildings totaling about 1.1 million square feet. Alderpersons passed the rezoning 50-0 on September 23, 2026, according to the City Clerk’s legislative record, and Urbanize Chicago reported the approval on October 2, 2026.

The project carries an estimated cost of $200 million, was designed by the architecture firm Nelson Worldwide and includes a new CTA bus terminal on the property. Urbanize reported that construction is planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2026 and finish in the fourth quarter of 2028. The mall shut down in June under a court order after the city told a judge the building had become dangerous.

The project at a glance

The final planned development documents approved by the council, along with Urbanize’s reporting, lay out the main numbers.

• The applicant in city records is Midwest RE Acquisitions LLC, and news coverage identifies the developer as Kurv Industrial.
• The four buildings would total about 1.1 million square feet on a 62.4-acre site bounded by Cicero Avenue, 74th Place, Kostner Avenue and 76th Street.
• The approved plan requires at least 904 car parking spaces, 216 loading docks and 160 truck parking spaces.
• The industrial buildings are capped at 45 feet tall.
• The land moves from B3-2 shopping zoning to M2-2 light industry and then into an Industrial Planned Development.
• The developer will build a CTA bus terminal with four boarding lanes and hand the terminal to the CTA at no charge.

How the plan cleared City Hall

The zoning application was introduced at the City Council on July 16, 2025, and places the property in the 18th Ward, according to the application on file with the clerk. That ward is represented by Ald. Derrick G. Curtis, according to the city’s ward page. The Chicago Plan Commission approved the planned development on August 20, 2026, the date printed on the final planned development statements, and Fox 32 reported that day that the commission had backed the rezoning.

The council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards recommended a substitute version of the ordinance on September 22, 2026. The full council passed the ordinance the next day with 50 yes votes and none against, the clerk’s record shows, and Curtis was among the yes votes. At the same meeting, a written expression of opposition to the rezoning was placed on file.

Curtis backed the project through the approval process. “My priority is to ensure that this property does not remain neglected,” he said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In WTTW’s coverage, he argued that the land was industrial before the mall arrived and that the project would add $200 million to the tax rolls and create jobs for the city.

Kurv Industrial was known as Bridge Industrial until March 2026, when the Chicago firm announced the new name, REjournals reported. Co-founder Steve Poulos is the chief executive. The Sun-Times reported that Kurv went under contract to buy Ford City Mall from the mall’s owner, Namdar Realty Group, in July 2025. The city application lists Midwest RE Acquisitions with an office in Rosemont and a Bridge Industrial email contact.

How the plan changed since 2025

The project grew between the first filing and the final vote. The July 2025 application described four buildings with about 912,880 square feet, 923 parking spaces, 92 loading docks and a maximum height of 68 feet. The version the council passed sets a 45-foot height limit and requires 216 loading docks and 160 truck spaces, according to the ordinance’s bulk regulations table.

In August, the Sun-Times reported that the estimated cost had risen from $150 million to $200 million, likely because of a new Ford City heritage plaza with landscaping and seating, a CTA bus station along Kostner Avenue and other infrastructure work. That work includes rebuilding 76th Street as a public street. The paper also reported that the two largest buildings would each top 300,000 square feet, with the other two at roughly 200,000 and 100,000 square feet, and that a traffic study found the industrial park would produce far less total traffic than the mall generated while open.

What the campus would look like

Urbanize describes the four buildings as speculative, the industry term for space built before tenants sign leases, and no tenants have been named in city records or news coverage. The site is laid out as a campus meant to keep traffic inside the property. Cars would reach the parking lots from 76th Street on the south, and trucks would use a dedicated entrance on Kostner Avenue, Urbanize reported. The facades mix brick, glass and metal accents at entrances and office areas, with precast concrete on the rest of the walls.

The ordinance allows warehousing, wholesaling, freight movement and freight terminals, with those uses subject to future compliance with the city’s Air Quality Ordinance. Manufacturing is allowed except for the intensive category, and smaller side uses are capped, including restaurants at 4,000 square feet and stand-alone offices at 9,000 square feet, according to the final planned development statements.

A new home for the Ford City bus terminal

Three CTA routes, the #54B South Cicero, the #67 67th-69th-71st and the #79 79th, list Ford City Mall as a terminal on their CTA route pages. A July 2025 project summary posted on the city’s website said those buses turn around on mall property and use the privately owned 76th Street.

The approved ordinance requires the developer to design and pay for a public bus terminal with four boarding lanes, three boarding islands, a passenger drop-off area, a weather canopy, lighting and live next-bus signs. A small operator building would hold two restrooms for bus drivers. The CTA reviews the design at several stages, and the land and terminal are to be deeded to the CTA at no charge. The developer must also work with the CTA on temporary bus service while construction is underway. Urbanize placed the terminal at the northeast corner of the site, and the Sun-Times described the station as sitting along Kostner Avenue.

Why Ford City Mall closed

The city went to court in April 2026 over the mall’s condition. The Sun-Times reported that Cook County Circuit Judge Leonard Murray was overseeing the case and that Namdar had failed to make required repairs. The owner, based in Great Neck, New York, bought the mall in 2019 for $16.6 million, the paper reported. A malfunctioning fire suppression system was causing constant flooding, and there were concerns about exposed wiring and possible sinkholes, according to the Sun-Times.

In May, Murray set a closing deadline of noon on June 22, 2026, and an attorney for the city said all parties had agreed to the date, the Sun-Times reported. About two dozen retailers were still open then, including JCPenney, the mall’s only department store. The order did not cover a nearby movie theater, some outbuildings or a section north of the main mall that includes a gym. Neither the council’s ordinance nor the news coverage of the vote says what will happen to those buildings or where the mall’s last tenants went, and no plan for them has been announced.

From wartime engines to a 1965 mall

The site sits in West Lawn, a neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago near Midway Airport. The Encyclopedia of Chicago’s West Lawn entry says a factory at Cicero Avenue and 77th Street built bomber engines during World War II and was later adapted for Tucker and then Ford car production. The Ford City Shopping Center opened on the abandoned factory site in 1965, the encyclopedia says.

The Sun-Times has reported that Dodge built aircraft engines there in World War II and that Ford did the same during the Korean War. The mall once had Carson Pirie Scott and Sears as anchors. Real estate investor Sam Zell bought the property for a reported $75 million in 1987 and held the mall for 25 years, the paper reported. Kurv’s plan includes a Ford City heritage plaza that would celebrate more than 80 years of Chicago history, according to the Sun-Times.

Neighbors raised traffic and pollution concerns

Some residents opposed trading a shopping center for warehouses. Glenford Flowers, a spokesperson for the Southside Flourish Movement, said semi-trucks “already congest Cicero Avenue, Pulaski and 79th,” WTTW reported, and he said neighbors worry about more noise and air pollution. Flowers wrote an alternative plan with a convention center, condos, apartments, retail and entertainment near Midway Airport, according to WTTW.

Fox 32 reported that residents cited air and noise pollution, truck traffic and the loss of future retail and commercial development. Updated job estimates for the final plan were not included in the city records or news coverage of the vote. The July 2025 project summary on the city’s website estimated more than 90 construction jobs and more than 500 permanent jobs for the earlier, smaller design.

Timeline and what happens next

The key dates below come from the clerk’s record, the planned development documents, the Sun-Times and Urbanize.

• The zoning application was introduced at the City Council on July 16, 2025.
• A judge set June 22, 2026, as the deadline for the mall to close.
• The Chicago Plan Commission approved the planned development on August 20, 2026.
• The zoning committee recommended a substitute ordinance on September 22, 2026.
• The full City Council passed the ordinance 50-0 on September 23, 2026.
• Construction is planned to start in the fourth quarter of 2026 and finish in the fourth quarter of 2028.

Before permits are issued, the developer needs Part II review from the Department of Planning and Development and a perimeter restoration agreement with the Chicago Department of Transportation covering the streets, sidewalks and curbs around the site, according to the planned development statements. The ordinance also requires the developer to file a hiring and contracting plan. The city encourages goals of 26% participation by minority-owned firms, 6% by women-owned firms and 50% city residents among construction workers.

Getting to the site

The mall is closed, but the CTA still lists Ford City Mall as a terminal for three bus routes, and Pace runs buses along Cicero Avenue.

• The #54B South Cicero bus runs between Ford City Mall and the 54th/Cermak Pink Line station, with weekday trips from Ford City between 5:05 a.m. and 11:40 p.m.
• The #67 67th-69th-71st bus runs between Ford City Mall and 67th/South Shore, with weekday trips from Ford City between 4:45 a.m. and 11:20 p.m.
• The #79 79th bus runs between Ford City Mall and 79th/Lakefront and has overnight Owl service.
• The Pace Route 383 South Cicero bus runs weekdays on Cicero Avenue between the Midway Orange Line station and Oak Forest.
• Under the approved plan, cars would enter the campus from 76th Street and trucks would use a separate entrance on Kostner Avenue.

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